One page, colour-code summaries and annotations of all Hamlet's soliloquies in Shakespeare's Hamlet required for Grade 12 NSC Home Language English examinations.
'O': is an interjection with a strong and emotional tone.
'too too': gives emphasis
'solid flesh': Hamlet feels as if he is a representation
1,2,129-158 Denmark who is rotten. He feels dirty because his
mother is dirty (because of her marriage to Claudius)
O that this too too solid flesh would melt, and he is a product of her and therefore must also be
Thaw, and resolve itself into a dew! dirty.
Or that the Everlasting (God) had not fix'd 'melt': Hamlet says that he wants to die by being
His canon (rules) 'gainst self-slaughter! O God! O God! burned because he wants to feel the pain of his mother
How weary, stale, flat, and unprofitable and Claudius's sins. This will allow him to cleanse
Seem to me all the uses of this world! himself and be at peace without the dirty flesh that his
Fie on't! O fie! (oh stuff it) 'tis an unweeded garden, mother gave him.
That grows to seed; things rank and gross in nature 'dew': be at peace with himself
Possess it merely. That it should come to this! 'weary, stale': Hamlet feels as if his life in pointless
But two months dead! — nay, not so much, not two: 'unweeded garden … rank and gross': He describes his
So excellent a king; that was, to this, life and the life of Denmark as rotting and decaying as a
Hyperion to a satyr; so loving to my mother, result of his mother and her relationship with Claudius.
That he might not beteem the winds of heaven 'Hyperion': The God of the sun. This refers to King
Visit her face too roughly. Heaven and earth! Hamlet and shows Hamlet's respect, admiration and
Must I remember? Why, she would hang on him love for his father and his strength as a leader.
As if increase of appetite (lust) had grown 'satyr': A half man half goat who preys on young girls
By what it fed on: and yet, within a month, — and is always drunk. It is the lowest ranking creature in
Let me not think on't, — Frailty, thy name is woman! — Greek mythology. This refers to Claudius and shows
A little month; or ere (before) those shoes were old Hamlet's hatred of him.
With which she followed my poor father's body 'Must I remember?': That he lost his father and has to
Like Niobe, all tears; — why she, even she, — constantly witness who his mother remarried.
O God! a beast that wants discourse of reason, 'Why…': from here onwards, Hamlet's tone becomes
Would have mourn'd longer, — married with mine uncle, one of anger instead of despair and mourning.
My father's brother; but no more like my father 'Frailty, thy name': Hamlet accuses Gertrude of being
Than I to Hercules: within a month; morally frail.
Ere yet the salt of most unrighteous tears 'Niobe': A Greek myth about a mother who
Had left the flushing in her galled eyes, continuously cried for her children. Hamlet uses this
She married: — O, most wicked speed, to post description to show that he thinks that his mother's
With such dexterity to incestuous sheets! grief towards the loss of King Hamlet is over
It is not, nor it cannot come to good; exaggerated and hypocritical as she got remarried so
But break my heart, — for I must hold my tongue! quickly after his father's death.
'beast … mourn'd longer': Hamlet says that an animal
would have grieved the loss of his father longer than
she did. Her lust for Claudius is primal.
'wicked … dexterity': Shows that Hamlet thinks that his
other got remarried so quickly just so she could have a
relationship with Claudius. Hamlet feels that his is
incestuous and will cause rot in Denmark.
'For I must hold my tongue': His silence will torment and
ultimately destroy him.
, Hamlet's Third Soliloquy
"To be or not to be": Hamlet contemplates suicide
"nobler … suffer": Is it better to endure the pain and bad luck of
To be, or not to be: that is the question: life
Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer "Slings and arrows": Implicit metaphor which describes that just
The slings and arrows of outrageous (bad) fortune, like weapons appearing suddenly and creating pain, life is a battle
Or to take arms against a sea of troubles, in which misfortunes will appear suddenly.
"Take arms against": To resist the pains and defend myself -
And by opposing end them? To die: to sleep;
through death.
No more; and by a sleep to say we end
"sea of troubles": Metaphor which describes suffering to be
The heart-ache and the thousand natural shocks expansive and unending just like the sea.
That flesh is heir (inherited) to, 'tis a consummation "end them": End the suffering through death.
Devoutly to be wish'd. To die, to sleep; "Heart ache": Hamlet has been caused heartache by Ophelia,
To sleep: perchance to dream: ay, there's the rub (problem); Gertrude and Rosencrantz and Guildenstern.
For in that sleep (afterlife) of death what dreams (reality of the "Natural shocks, fortune, heir": Hamlet believes that bad luck and
afterlife) may come suffering are part of life and cannot be avoided.
When we have shuffled off this mortal coil (difficult life), "consummation": Hamlet hopes that death will be a peaceful and
Must give us pause: there's the respect perfect end to suffering.
"devoutly": He has a sincere wish for death.
That makes calamity of so long life;
"Dreams may come": He begin to overthink about the afterlife and
For who would bear the whips and scorns of time,
what they reality of it will be like.
The oppressor's wrong, the proud man's contumely, "Mortal coil": Hamlet wants to get rid of his difficult life and
The pangs of despised love, the law's delay, sullied flesh through death, like a snake shuffles out of its old skin.
The insolence of office and the spurns "Give us pause": Hamlet tells himself that because of the
That patient merit of the unworthy takes, possibility of the after lifer being worse than reality, he must stop
When he himself might his quietus (peace) make and think about the consequences of suicide.
With a bare bodkin (unsheathe your dagger)? who would fardels Hamlet explains the suffering in reality: Whips and scorns: links to
(sins) bear, the natural shocks and suffering of life. Oppressor's wrong:
To grunt and sweat under a weary life, Injustices done to you. Contumely: looked down upon by others.
Despised love: Unreturned love - Ophelia. Law's delay: justice is
But that the dread of something after death,
never served in time - Claudius. Insolence of office: bad leaders -
The undiscover'd (after life) country from whose bourn Claudius and Gertrude. Patient merit: your kindness is taken
No traveller returns, puzzles the will advantage of.
And makes us rather bear those ills we have "Grunt … weary life": Humans are slaves to the suffering in their
Than fly to others that we know not of? life.
Thus conscience does make cowards of us all; "but" and "fly … not of": Hamlet goes on to conclude that humans
And thus the native hue of resolution only choose to bear life's pain because the suffering after death
Is sicklied o'er with the pale cast of thought, may possibly be worse. This unknown allows people to accept the
And enterprises of great pith and moment suffering.
With this regard their currents turn awry, "conscience does make cowards of us all": Hamlet is saying that by
thinking, we realise the dangers of our actions and then we are
And lose the name of action. Soft you, now,
too scared to act because of the apparent danger. As a result, we
The fair Ophelia! (to her) Nymph in thy orisons do not act; we become cowardly. This rational thought
Be all my sins remembered. demonstrates that Hamlet in not mad and can think with reason.
"Nymph": Nymph's live in water. By calling Ophelia a nymph, he
foreshadows Ophelia's death through drowning.
This is written in prose as the unrefined way of speaking reflects Hamlet's unstable mental state
Hamlet wants to get rid of his physical body through death as this is the part of him, he thinks is sullied. He wants to still
be aware of life after death as he believes his mind to be pure and uncorrupted by external factors, like his physical body.
Hamlet uses the pronoun "we" and "us" instead of "I". This could show that Hamlet is merely debating the ideas of death,
life and suffering with himself and the audience.
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